Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 803 - 48: Nothing is Innately Predestined

Chapter 803: Chapter 48: Nothing is Innately Predestined

Xiang Shan was sitting right next to Jeanne. For some reason, Jeanne felt there was a layer of light around them...

It must be an illusion coming from Xiang Shan. This illusion was just like... when she was still on Earth, looking at the moon from the desert...

At that time, she could only sense the great authority of King Aqini from the moon. But now, a different aspect of "Moonlight" flowed into his consciousness from Xiang Shan’s mind.

Xiang Shan sighed slightly: [I’m not particularly skilled at understanding others. If it were Inga... someone like Ingrid Granat, perhaps they would quickly realize your problem.]

At this moment, Jeanne, surprisingly, focused on another issue: [You said you... uh, are not good at understanding others? That’s absurd. Look at the Ninth Martial God... The world says the Martial God has the ability to "manipulate people’s hearts."]

Xiang Shan looked at Jeanne’s prosthetic eye: [The first thing you thought of was this problem... well, let me explain it a bit. Communication between people actually consists of three parts—firstly, understanding others, secondly, internal feedback, and finally, expressing that feedback.]

[Generally speaking, mirror neurons store the coding for specific behavior patterns. Humans can act on these codes without thinking or understand others’ intentions without thinking when they see certain actions from others.]

[Next comes feedback... it’s a quite complex process. But to simplify, it’s roughly "after understanding someone else’s joy or pain, one’s heart produces a joyful or painful emotional impulse."]

[Then the third point, which is to convey what you’ve felt.]

Xiang Shan pointed at himself: [To be honest, if any of these three parts goes wrong, it will lead to a person being out of sync with a group. If you can’t correctly feel others, you can’t realize that others might be pained by your actions, and it’s hard to receive positive feedback in communication. You easily become a jerk, thinking everyone holds malice towards you. "Feedback issues" are the most dangerous. If someone derives pleasure from others’ pain, they easily become a sociopath... tsk, although there’s no society now. And if "expression" is the problem, well, it’s somewhat milder, people can’t get positive feedback from "communicating with you." You become easy to lose friends.]

[Then, all these three points can be compensated by human rational thinking and the ability to summarize patterns.]

[Huh?] Jeanne was quite surprised.

[Is it strange? In facial language, some parts are innate. When a baby sees a stranger’s smiling face, they’ll feel happy. Some people just happen to lack this innate ability. But they can still learn through experience, "Oh, when a human face looks like this, it means happiness." They can also generalize, "Oh, humans will be happy if treated in this way, it’s a good thing," "According to customs and common conventions, I should do this, it’s reasonable." Not every innately indifferent person will definitely turn into a cold-blooded jerk—you can only say they have a higher probability than average of becoming cold-blooded jerks, but nothing is innately determined.]

—"Nothing is innately determined," the main slogan of Superman Enterprise, the motto during the human cyberization revolution, one of the core philosophies of the World Opener.

[Since we naturally have the potential to go "from nothing to something," then...]

[Just as you thought, Jeanne.] Tumor Xiang Shan shrugged, [If we can go from nothing to something, then training and enhancement are even easier, as long as you master the method—communication ability can be divided into three abilities, not just one. Additionally, Nine... for now, we can only say that guy has an excess of expressive ability. As for understanding and feedback, I can only say I don’t know.]

Xiang Shan looked at his own "Phantom": [By the way, whose knowledge does this belong to? Does Xiang Shan himself possess this... Does Xiang Shan himself have such a clear understanding of this...]

Jeanne reached out and patted the air beside her—or rather, patted the image of Xiang Shan in her eyes: [If it’s about the Martial Ancestor and Martial God, it’s tough to conclude. But at least you do.]

Aside from the initial period of mutual conflict, this was the first time Jeanne attempted to interact with Xiang Shan.

Xiang Shan took two seconds to understand this gesture: [Whew, you should know that what I can see is actually what you can see through your eyes... Also, I don’t necessarily see my own phantom. That’s too strange. Let’s try another way next time—and indeed, I haven’t done well enough.]

Jeanne said: [Then my emotions are...]

[Actually coming from me, called "pride," or "joy of reversal," basically, it’s about pulling off a maneuver that turns the tables at the brink of death, feeling quite joyful. You assume the situation of "no matter what, this terrible circumstance can’t be turned around." Even if you escape this time, more dreadful catastrophes await in the future. Also, in your heart, overcoming various difficulties in the past was because of me, not your efforts.]

Jeanne glanced at herself, smiling wryly: "I used to say Asgard is weak and cowardly... Turns out I was also very weak."

This sentence even slipped out uncontrollably.

[It’s not a matter of strength or weakness.] Xiang Shan said, [No matter what we encounter or do, you’ll generally attribute it this way: "Because of Xiang Shan, I endure these hardships," "Because of Xiang Shan, I can overcome these hardships," "Because I’m weak, I can’t solve the problems I face." You’re accustomed to thinking this way.]

Jeanne was silent for a moment, then nodded: [What you said back then was right... I’m indeed far weaker than you. On the mental level. You even need to forcibly evoke your most painful memories to reach my level...]

[I wasn’t born this strong, and you weren’t born this weak.] Xiang Shan said, [With others’ help, I first overcame many challenges that "effort can overcome" and achieved victories. By the time I encountered things beyond my control in life, I was already accustomed to success. You’re different. In this world, you’re isolated, and over the last ten years, you’ve never experienced... cheering like I did just now.]

Jeanne lightly tapped her chest: [Now I feel it... as if I have a heart. Ah, why am I only feeling this now?]

[I’ve always been reducing neural communication through thinking. Of course, this is mutual.] Xiang Shan said, [In the past, I would numb your neural network with drugs before I could control the body. Doing it this way, it’s indeed the first time.]